Margaret Kerry starred as Tinker Bell in Disney’s original 1953 movie «Pete Pan.»
All it takes is faith, trust, and a little bit of pixie dust.
And a whole lot of dance! According to Margaret Kerry, who was the model for Disney’s original Tinker Bell, the actress and dancer was able to put herself into the creation of the fairy.
The 96-year-old worked closely with Disney animator Marc Davis on the 1953 movie “Peter Pan.”
Kerry recalled their conversation about shaping the character to Woman’s World on Thursday.
“I said, ‘What do you want her to be? Ditzy like Betty Boop? Above it all like the Queen of the Angels?’” she reflected. “He said, ‘Margaret, we want her to be you.’”
According to the outlet, Kerry smiled as she reminisced on her next words to Davis, who died at age 86 in 2000.
“I said, ‘Golly, I can do that’,” she shared.
Kerry explained that Davis turned Tinker Bell “into a dancer.”
“There’s always a ballet move,” she said of the beloved green fairy.
“At that time, they didn’t have electronics. Everything was done by hand,” the actress revealed about creating Tinker Bell. “So, they cast a person in the role and then filmed them with 35-millimeter film … a man on a little cart with a pad that came out, and that was the camera.”
Disney went on to film Kerry’s movements and reactions over the next nine months.
